The sister-in-law of dreaded Islamic State supremo Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is being held in a Kurdish prison following a failed suicide bombing attack several years ago, according to a media report.
The 24-year-old woman, Duaa Amid Ibrahim, is the sister of one of Baghdadi's three wives, and has been held by Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) security forces since she was caught entering Erbil with a suicide vest beneath her burqa, the Fox News reported.
Kurdish authorities say she was sent by al-Qaeda on a mission that long predated her brother-in-law's rise to power. With Baghdadi now becoming arguably the most dangerous terrorist in the world, Ibrahim appears to have major clout behind bars, the report said.
"Her mind might have changed from wanting to be a suicide bomber, but her ideology is still the same. She is very popular, the other women really like her," a KRG official, was quoted as saying.
Years behind bars has done nothing to soften her radical beliefs, the official said.
Ibrahim was a teenage widow of an al-Qaeda fighter when she was arrested.
A high-ranking intelligence and security official from Erbil's security agency Asayish was quoted as saying that Ibrahim's case is still proceeding through the legal system, although it is likely she will receive a life sentence.
Ibrahim is regularly monitored by the international Red Cross along with dozens of other jailed female jihadists in compliance with international laws.
She even has a television in her cell that allows her and other inmates to follow the bloody exploits of ISIS and the international community's efforts to stop the black-clad jihadist army, the report said.
ISIS' Iraqi stronghold in Mosul lies just about 90 km west of Erbil, and the Kurdish Peshmerga forces clash almost daily with ISIS along the frontlines.
Ibrahim's brother-in-law rose through the ranks of al-Qaeda's Iraqi arm following his release from the US-run Camp Bucca detention center in southern Iraq in 2004. Baghdadi announced his split from al-Qaeda and the formation of ISIS in August, 2013.
Even as the terrorist group seized power, land and international headlines, the Kurds had no idea that the failed suicide bomber they had captured five years earlier was a close relative of Baghdadi. The connection was made soon after the Lebanese Army detained Baghdadi's wife and son as they crossed from Syria in late 2014, the report said.
Despite periodic rumours of his death, Kurdish officials believe Baghdadi is alive and shuttling between the Iraqi cities of Mosul and Ramadi.
